ABSTRACT
The first problem in what the author call improvement is to get a grip on the status quo. The most magnificent improvement scheme in the world will be worthless if our perception of the current situation is in error. The authors often say things such as, "It ought to be working according to the standard operation," or "It ought to be finished." "Feel" is a kind of experiential, statistical awareness that succeeds at a fairly high degree of probability. The authors use the word fact to designate things they perceive, but in many cases our perception is only superficial. Oversights and misperceptions are revealed when we look deeper and observe more rigorously. Supervisors frequently put pressure on plant workers to speed up their work, to get jobs done more quickly. Observation of workshop assembly lines reveals that processes that are always busy with work take more time and processes that are always waiting take less time.
